Why aren’t you getting gains?….

As I scroll down through my instagram and facebook feed, I just see that it is littered with guys and girls that are muscular and lean (the downfall of owning a gym). There are so many it’s ridiculous. Most of the time, the photos are accompanied by some pseudo-motivational quote or psychological standpoint outlining how easy getting ripped is if you want it badly enough, or, train this way and believe in yourself, blah blah blah.

Now, i’m not saying this is wrong, however, I’ve been in this industry a long time and have done thousands of PT and coaching hours. In that time there is one glaring mistake that almost every aspiring fitness bod is making.

As a newbie to lifting, anything works, merely putting my weights away as I finish with them would yield some results. Once the honeymoon phase is over, you will actually have to start some kind of structured lifting program. I’m constantly being asked to write programs for people, this is fine if you’re an advanced lifter as I can see where you’re going wrong and write something specifically for you, but for novice and intermediate lifters, the ‘what’ is far less important than the ‘how’.

What I mean by this is, if your training program is progressive, and hits most major body parts frequently enough, it will do the job. The real reason you’re not seeing progress is that you just don’t train hard enough. You are not stressing your muscles enough to ‘need’ to grow. Hypertrophy or muscle growth is basically a defence mechanism to the external stress it’s put under. If you lift weights regularly, your body will adapt to be able to cope with the demands you’re subjecting it to. As your muscles get bigger and stronger they need more stress to make them adapt and get bigger.

Simply put, the reason why your training has stopped dead, is that, you just don’t train hard enough. Like I said, unless you’re an advanced lifter and you need specific training stimulus, all reasonably thought out training programs will work, if you do them to your maximum effort. I know, when I take a client through a session they’ll walk out exhausted and will feel it for days. So, don’t be a program chaser and copy everyone and anyone just because they’re muscular and lean, get a decent plan, stick with it, be progressive with weight and volume, and train like you have a gun against your head.

If you like to know more about advanced training you can message me via my website.